A Corpus-based Analysis of Conversational Features in Bahasa Inggris Textbooks for Junior High Schools in Indonesia

Nurinsani Yaman, Ikmi Nur Oktavianti

Abstract


To support successful language teaching and learning, the teaching materials should represent actual language use. However, some studies have discovered significant mismatches between the language presented in textbooks and the real use of English. This study aims to find out the conversational features (i.e., inserts) and investigate the most frequent features in English textbooks for junior high schools in Indonesia. The data of this study are conversations containing inserts in the textbooks. The data were collected from three Bahasa Inggris textbooks for junior high schools compiled as a corpus of textbook conversations with 10.275 tokens. The inserts were identified from the corpus with the assistance of a corpus tool, LancsBox, using KWIC feature. The data were analyzed based on Biber’s classification of inserts. However, this study limits the scope in the four most common inserts in conversation, such as interjections, discourse markers, response forms, and hesitators.  The results show that conversation texts in Bahasa Inggris textbooks for junior high school lack of interjections, less variation of discourse markers, and hesitators are absent. Given the significance of inserts to make the conversation more natural and realistic, these findings are troublesome. Pedagogically, these findings should be taken into account by Indonesian textbook writers and teachers to help the students use the language more naturally in their conversations.

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.12928/iucee2022.v2i2.12952

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